


Hopelessly devoted to you

by dreamerbydawn



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Fluff, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Joe appreciation, M/M, Nicky gives the speech this time, that's basically it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25953973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerbydawn/pseuds/dreamerbydawn
Summary: “All I’m saying is, maybe I want to hear it from Nicky for a change”Nile’s words were emphasized with a jab of her fork in Nicky’s direction, and the table falls silent. Their baby immortal seems rather pleased with the effect as she helps herself to another bite of food, chewing smugly and raising a challenging eyebrow towards Joe and Nicky. Joe even spies Andy wearing a thoughtful look as she studies them.Aka,That time when Nile inadvertently prompts Nicky to wax poetic about his love, and hears what she's sure are wedding vows instead.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 64
Kudos: 701





	Hopelessly devoted to you

“All I’m saying is, maybe I want to hear it from Nicky for a change”

Nile’s words were emphasized with a jab of her fork in Nicky’s direction, and the table falls silent. Their baby immortal seems rather pleased with the effect as she helps herself to another bite of food, chewing smugly and raising a challenging eyebrow towards Joe and Nicky. Joe even spies Andy wearing a thoughtful look as she studies them.

“Joe is the love of my life, what more is there to say?” Nicky asks, his confusion clear as he frowns at an unhelpful Nile.

“That’s exactly my point” She answers, her fork still in full animation as she waves it once again in Nicky’s direction while giving Joe a look that he assumes is supposed to convey ‘ _see what I mean_ ’

He however, very much, does not see her point. Nicky’s stories of them are going to be the same as Joe’s and he truly sees no difference in which one of them is recounting it. When he says as much to Nile, she heaves a very put upon sigh before launching into an explanation with the air of a tired retail store employee dealing with a particularly hopeless customer.

“So we already know you two invented love or whatever, right? You only need eyes to see how disgustingly sweet the both of you are. I’d be getting cavities if I didn’t have super healing” She begins, and Joe only shrugs unapologetically at her, his love for Niccolo was always something he was willing to wear with pride.

“Except, in the last six months, I know everything from the exact blue-green shade of Nicky’s eyes, to his favourite ice cream, to what you’re getting him for your anniversary. And almost nothing about you, cuz Nicky doesn’t wax poetic like you do”

Once again, Nile’s explanation leaves the table silent. Andy looks increasingly like she is seeing something they aren’t and is waiting for it all to play out, so she can call them idiots later. Nicky’s furrowed brows are touching, the crunched lines appearing on his forehead threatening to do enough damage even immortality and super healing can't wipe it away, prompting Joe to reach out and take his beloved’s hand in quiet assurance.

“Nicky loves me just as much, he is the other half of my soul after all” Joe defends loyally. It is easy to do so when he knows the words to be true, Niccolo’s love was simply expressed in different ways.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Nile sounds fondly exasperated now and Joe is about to argue once again, the meaning of her words still unclear to him, but Andy cuts in first.

“100 quid on Nicky” She’s confident in her bet as always, and leaves the younger woman gaping in shock. “You want him to do this don’t you?”

“No! I’m trying to get Joe to _not_ do this” Nile points out, but Andy merely raises a challenging eyebrow at her, before turning back to where Joe and Nicky are staring at both the women with mounting confusion.

“Nicky, tell us how much you love Joe” Andy bluntly demands, and Nile swivels her head around, volleying her gaze between all three of them before shrugging and getting on board with Andy's idea. She even sits up straighter as she turns to watch Nicky expectantly.

For his part, Joe is…curious. From the very beginning, he has always been the more effusive one, his proclamations of love were always much louder, and had significantly more flair than Nicky’s. It has never bothered him of course, Nicolo was not shy by any means, neither was he ashamed of them. He just chose to express himself in other quieter ways, all of which Joe very much treasured.

But it did mean that Nile was right, Nicky spoke about Joe far less than Joe spoke about him. And now that it’s been brought to his attention, Joe can’t help but wonder what Nicky would choose to say.

Clearly, Nicky reads that in Joe’s face and huffs a quiet laugh, which in turn makes Joe grin unrepentantly back at him. There’s a moment there, between the two of them, where Joe is once again overwhelmed by a rush of love for this man whom he gets to call his own, and sees it reflected back at him.

When it passes and Nicky looks away, it is so he can pick his coffee up and sip quietly at it, aware that all three of them were waiting for his response but taking no pains to hurry himself along.

“The first time I died was by Yusuf’s blade” is what Nicky finally says, the words have long lost their sting, and they have both come far enough that they can now laugh at their own bloody history. Still, It makes Joe reach for Nicky’s hand, tangling their fingers together even though all of his love's attention is focused on Nile. “And I was reborn by it”

There is no real inflection in his tone, none of the passion imbued in proclamations when they were made by Joe. Instead, his voice remains soft and quietly compelling in that unique way of his that makes anyone stop and pay attention when he speaks. Even when Nicky continues, his tone remains placid, like he is simply stating another known fact of the universe. 

“I was remade by his love, molded into a good man by his hands, guided into the light only by his presence. His forgiveness has given me peace that all the cathedrals in the world could not. His sense of justice in the world has given me a purpose that my faith could not. It is his passion for life that drives me to live my own to the fullest, and if, after a millennia of walking this earth, living the lives we do, I still believe in the goodness of people, it is because he shows me every day, what a good and true and noble man is. He is my unfailing reminder of how kindness can change this world, and so his name becomes the only prayer I need, his body the only altar. There is not a moment by his side, when I am not in awe of his heart and his mind and his soul. Yusuf is the sun I will orbit until I am no more”

If Joe could see through the haze of his own tears, he will notice both Nile and Andy blinking away their own, albeit Andy far more discreetly than Nile who is openly sniffling. As it is though, he can only focus on the surge of emotion overwhelming him and leaving him in one of those rare moments where he is truly speechless. It is not that he ever doubted the depth of Nicky's feelings for him, just that he has only every heard it in the form of whispered " _I love you's_ ' and ' _you are my everything_ ' pressed into his skin in every known language, almost always in the privacy of their own rooms. 

It is that this is novel, and the sensation is much like that first kiss Nicky pressed into his mouth or that first exploratory brush of hands across his body. It is that it has been nine hundred years and Joe didn't think there were any firsts left for the two of them, let alone one that would leave him so undone. 

Nicky has turned his attention away from Nile, and those blue eyes are fixed on him, as always beckoning Joe to abandon the world around him and drown in their clear depths. It is because he knows them better than anything in the world that he can read the flicker of confusion, followed by surprise, before it settles on the infinite gentleness that Joe is oh so familiar with. 

"Ya hayati" The words are almost chiding, and he slips back into Arabic as he says "Everything I am is yours, and if my words are what you want –“

But Joe is already frantically shaking his head, because he couldn't ever abide by the notion that Nicky feels inadequate in how he has chosen to love him. The God's honest truth will always remain that while he is caught up with how these words have affected him, he doesn't need to hear them to know the truth in Nicolo's heart. Nicky, however, only reaches forward to frame his face in his hands and brushes his thumbs against the apple of Joe's cheeks, expressing an unspoken plea for silence.

“You are all I’ve had in this life to call my own" He says, a small uptick in his smile that soothes the twinge Joe still feels at the reminder "But in you I’ve found it all, a home and a family and even myself every time i'm lost." 

Joe cannot help but press a soft kiss to the inside of his palm, even as he lets him continue. 

"I am not good like you amore mio" Nicky quells Joe's protests with a look before they can even form "I do not easily know the right thing. All those centuries ago, I sought only deliverance at the gates of the Holy Land, but found it instead when you chose to open your heart to a man unworthy of it. I did not know then, that you would be my salvation, only that I had to try every day to become someone that deserves a place by your side. That could maybe one day deserve you"

This time Joe dislodges Nicky's hands with the force of his denial, and then takes them into his own. It had been centuries, the crusades had long since become part of the annals of human history, and Nicolo had done more than enough good in that time, that cutting down a few dozen soldiers in a wrongful war could never hold ground. 

Joe was here to remind him every day of that fact, and is just as earnest as every other time when he begins to appeal "Nicolo, you are a good man and you -" 

"Hush Yusuf, I know. I know that I am not the man I used to be." Nicky soothes, and Joe still gears up to protest anyway, because Nicky was never that version of himself he so seems to hate.

He fought a war in ignorance, yes, but he never hurt an innocent outside the battlefield, and always had the willingness to learn once he realized the failings in what he had been taught. His humility and his honor were things Joe has marveled at for close to a millennia now and those had existed in the crusader at the deserts outside Jerusalem, same as they do in the man beside him.

Nicky preempts Joe's attempts to repeat his arguments for the thousandth time though by bending forward until their foreheads are touching and their breaths can mingle. 

"Who I am today, who I have been since the first time I laid my sword down in front of you, is a man who was put on this earth to love you habibi" 

The statement is final, sealed with a kiss pressed onto his knuckles, same as every other time Nicky has had the last word. 

And just like always, Joe is helpless but to succumb to it.

Because yes, Nile is throwing literally all of her money at Andy with a rather emotional ' _damnit Nicky, we said poetry, not wedding vows'_ and there is quiet pride shining in Andy's eyes, just like every other time they've shared a moment in front of her. But right now Joe's entire world has narrowed down to this wonderful gift of a man who he is lucky enough to call his own. 

**Author's Note:**

> My first work in this fandom, but oh my god, i'm so in love with ALL of them that I just know i'm going to be mucking around here for a long long time just trying to get all my plot bunnies in a row.


End file.
